Sacramento Philharmonic Debut Brubeck Ansel Adams: America Puts Sacramento on the Musical Landscape

2009-04-14T05:40:24Z

Sacramento Philharmonic’s sold out presentation of “Brubeck Ansel Adams: America” on Saturday night set a new standard for classical music. By commissioning an original composition by one of the premier jazz and classical father-son duos in the world set to a backdrop of images by one of the most famous nature photographers of all time, Sacramento’s orchestra raised the stature of the city and exposed a new audience to the possibilities of classical music.

The April 11 Sacramento debut of a wide-ranging classical piece composed by the legendary Dave and Chris Brubeck was a tribute to the love of the west shared by Dave and the late photographer Ansel Adams. Both men spent relatively isolated childhoods looking for ways to express themselves. They persuaded the world accept new forms of art by reinventing their respective mediums.

As a child, Adams studied Bach and Chopin with plans to be a concert pianist until he visited and fell in love with Yosemite at the age of 14. His black-and-white photos defined the allure of the west for a world that dreamed of following in his footsteps. He credited the attention to detail and discipline of music lessons with teaching him the patience required to compose the perfect photograph.

The 88-year-old Dave Brubeck was a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and Library of Congress Living Legend for his innovative classical and jazz work, including the creation of the jazz standard Take Five. Dave was touched by Adams’ autobiography and, after some hesitation, agreed to create piano sketches his son, Chris, would edit, orchestrate and match to some 93 photos from the Adams collection. Chris, a multi-instrumentalist and leader of the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, composed “Mark Twain’s World: A Symphonic Journey for Orchestra and Genuine Thespians” for the Stockton Symphony in 2005. When approached about the project, he immediately loved the idea, seeing the opportunity to merge music and photography to create something larger than either one alone.

The result is a piece that fills the senses while evoking nostalgia and hope. As majestic images of Half Dome and Horsetail Falls fade in and out on a giant screen, the music builds and then melts to mirror the majesty of a church or echoes the southwestern style as a mission takes the screen. When the final moonlit mountain went dark, the music stopped and the full house erupted. The entire 22-minute piece was underwritten by an architectural beat that repeats the percussion of Ansel Adams’ name. It also includes musical references to Adams’ early mentors, Bach and Chopin and a shared love of California’s grandeur. The effect is both inspiring and humbling.

The pairing of art and music was the brainchild of Sacramento Philharmonic board member Jennifer Basye Sander who three years ago orchestrated the commissioning of an Andre Previn piece honoring artist Wayne Thiebaud as part of California Compositions. For the “America” project, Sacramento Philharmonic teamed with a consortium of six other orchestras – Stockton Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Monterey Symphony, Baltimore Symphony orchestra, Temple University Symphony Orchestra and Abilene Philharmonic along with Meet the Composer and the James Irvine Foundation. The Center for Creative Photography provided the photos and Jack and Dolores Cakebread underwrote the projection design by famed Broadway designer Jeff Sugg. Wells Fargo sponsored tickets for 100-students to fuel the next generation of artists.

America may have been the big draw of the night, but it was not the only high note. Sacramento’s own 19-year-old Levi Saelua debuted his first commission exclusively for Sacramento Philharmonic. His jazz interpretation of Bach’s Suite No. 1 deconstructed a familiar harmony by stretching out the rhythm to create a new narrative that is fresh, yet familiar. Rounding out the pre-intermission offering was Richard Strauss’ Don Juan, a piece Sacramento Philharmonic Executive Director Marc Feldman labeled the grandfather of show music.

The second half of the evening was dedicated to Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 with it’s fateful themes that cycled back to the three generations of artistry that started out the evening.

The night of firsts was the second show of the season that has sold out and Music Director Michael Morgan plans to build on the momentum for the 2009-2010 season with a return of Beethoven’s 9th and Egyptian conductor Nader Abbassi. The combination of original works with traditional favorites and broad crowd and sponsor support puts Sacramento in an elite group on the world musical landscape.

Sacramento Embraces Coworking Trend at Capsity Offices

2009-02-23T20:21:10Z

Shared Office Space Equals Greater Networking Potential

As the definition of work has changed, so has the destination. Entrepreneurs not content to serve a sentence isolated at home or ready to take on the overhead of an office staff are joining forces in new coworking spaces where they can network with other creative types while sharing resources. The growing trend is visible at 3rdward in New York City where desk space starts at $300 per month with access to a digital media lab, wood shop and dance studio. It also pops it’s well-groomed head up at Conjunctured in Austin, Texas, where a team of four technologists share space and ideas with creative entrepreneurs in a remodeled old house. And in Sacramento, the solution born of economic necessity is called Capsity Offices.

The Capsity perch at the corner of P and 23rd streets in Midtown Sacramento is the brainchild of founders Ricardo Robles, Captain Visionary; and Jeff Louie, Chief Operations Dynamo. The goal for the duo was to mix dynamic entrepreneurs in a warm, informal space to facilitate the growth of new projects. That is why they turned a Midtown office complex on into Sacramento’s first rent by the hour, day or space studio geared for entrepreneurs who want to get out of the house and coffee shop into a cost-effective professional space that gives them access to a conference room, reception services and other motivated professionals.

“Capsity Offices is designed to be comfortable, professional, and entrepreneurial,” Robles explains. “What started as simply providing open office space blossomed into a community of entrepreneurs, thinkers, leaders, organizers, catalysts, freelancers, teachers, technologists and activists.”

Some of the first young business owners to flock to the art-filled space include Room to Breathe, PDC Technology, MidtownGrid.com, America's Youth United, Clear Printing and Graphics, Art Peace Massage and The Purnell Partnerships.

A January 2008 Christian Science Monitor article traces the coworking trend back to a lonely San Francisco software programmer who, with a few friends in similar circumstances in the heady days of 2005, leased an office space, installed printers, fax machines and wireless Internet and called it coworking. The article pegged the number of similar setups across the country at 29. A more informal version of the 1990s incubators, the collaboration can be spontaneous and powerful.

Robles and Louie are more than creative landlords, however. They see themselves as entrepreneurial boosters. The two have led in such community-building efforts as Global Entrepreneurship Week, Bikeramento and the first-ever Sacramento Tweetup – a physical meeting of networkers who connected on the growing Twitter micro-blogging site. Capsity hosts classes on effective networking and has become a hub in the live-work neighborhood. Their energy has not gone unnoticed. Louie was named Ambassador of the Year by the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce.

About Capsity: Capsity Offices is an Entrepreneurial Fueling Center located at 2321 P Street in Midtown Sacramento, providing virtual offices and executive suites in a comfortable, yet professional, setting. Affordable virtual offices feature access to conference rooms, meeting spaces and professional business services such as shared receptionists and office equipment. Paired with the creative power of networking with fellow entrepreneurs, Capsity is the perfect first space for technology and business services start-ups as well as executives looking for a local home base or downsizing from a large footprint. Capsity was also the launching pad for Global Entrepreneurship Week and Bikeramento. Learn more at www.capsityoffices.com.

Newest articles on The Sacramento Press written by JT Long

Sacramento Philharmonic Debut Brubeck Ansel Adams: America Puts Sacramento on the Musical Landscape

Sacramento Embraces Coworking Trend at Capsity Offices